I am just finishing my first build from scratch (sort of). I cut all of the panels myself, but I bought the control panel. I applied the side art, but messed it up some. The side art I purchased was not quite the right size, or I missed something so the Chef hat is too low. Next time I want to try stenciling. It has a 4 way joy, a trackball, and a 19 inch CRT. I learned a lot from this build and I have at least two other projects I want to try. I have a 25 inch tri mode that is itching to become a SHMUP. I am currently putting together a list of people whose ideas helped me put this together. I can start with Saint for putting this all together. Thank you.

Thanks. I will try to organize my chaos into a build log. If nothing else it will be a cautionary tale encouraging organization and planning. I tend to just dive in. My next cab will be much prettier on the inside. This one looks good from the outside, but is kind of a disaster on the inside. The most important thing is that it plays great.

Thanks. I will try to organize my chaos into a build log. If nothing else it will be a cautionary tale encouraging organization and planning. I tend to just dive in. My next cab will be much prettier on the inside. This one looks good from the outside, but is kind of a disaster on the inside. The most important thing is that it plays great.

That would be great! That's the kind of stuff new people doing research need to see.

That looks remarkably similar to the mount I built for my scratch built pac-man. There are L beams with holes at them you can get at Lowes/Home Depot and I bolted those to the crt. It makes it easier to do positioning adjustments.

That looks remarkably similar to the mount I built for my scratch built pac-man. There are L beams with holes at them you can get at Lowes/Home Depot and I bolted those to the crt. It makes it easier to do positioning adjustments.

You couldn't have paid me to see Daryl Hall and John Oates when I was in high school but I'm a huge fan now. The wife and I saw them last year in Madison and they were fantastic. Would love to see them again. Did Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings open for them?

You couldn't have paid me to see Daryl Hall and John Oates when I was in high school but I'm a huge fan now. The wife and I saw them last year in Madison and they were fantastic. Would love to see them again. Did Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings open for them?

You couldn't have paid me to see Daryl Hall and John Oates when I was in high school but I'm a huge fan now. The wife and I saw them last year in Madison and they were fantastic. Would love to see them again. Did Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings open for them?

Man who let all the old people in? (Actually they aren't nearly as terrible as I pretend.... I could see why people like them.)

Went to the yard sale today. Found a wii for a dollar. Then a pipe burst at mom's so I was pretty naffed but I got home a few minutes ago, fired up the wii and it works perfectly! It looks like a cat used it as a hair brush, but all I need is a replacement drive for my pristine model, so hey.... dollar wii!

Man who let all the old people in? (Actually they aren't nearly as terrible as I pretend.... I could see why people like them.)

Went to the yard sale today. Found a wii for a dollar. Then a pipe burst at mom's so I was pretty naffed but I got home a few minutes ago, fired up the wii and it works perfectly! It looks like a cat used it as a hair brush, but all I need is a replacement drive for my pristine model, so hey.... dollar wii!

So I swapped out the drives. My good wii is repaired and after I gave it a thorough cleaning, the donor console doesn't look bad at all aside from a missing door for the GC ports. I used letterbomb to throw the homebrew channel on that one as well. So the question is, what to do with the thing? Obviously I could hook a hdd up to it, but I was thinking of something more fun.

Ideas:

1. Mod the case and cram as many tg16 games as I can on it. Mod some cheap wiimotes into tg16 gamepads. Create a tur-faux graphics 16. 2. Same as above, only with the NES. Create a NES classic before the release. 3. Strip as much junk as I can off of it and attach the sensor bar onto it. Throw a bunch of lightgun games on it, mod the menu and create a shooting gallery console.4. ?

So I swapped out the drives. My good wii is repaired and after I gave it a thorough cleaning, the donor console doesn't look bad at all aside from a missing door for the GC ports. I used letterbomb to throw the homebrew channel on that one as well. So the question is, what to do with the thing? Obviously I could hook a hdd up to it, but I was thinking of something more fun.

Ideas:

1. Mod the case and cram as many tg16 games as I can on it. Mod some cheap wiimotes into tg16 gamepads. Create a tur-faux graphics 16. 2. Same as above, only with the NES. Create a NES classic before the release. 3. Strip as much junk as I can off of it and attach the sensor bar onto it. Throw a bunch of lightgun games on it, mod the menu and create a shooting gallery console.4. ?

I used one in my exercise room strictly for Wii Fit and streaming Netflix while I ride my exercise bike.

But now that I think about it. You have that dolphinbar, so I would rather see you do something with that and a pc than a simple wii cab.

It depends upon how successful I am at writing a good ir script.

I'm making progress with the app I'm writing.... most stuff is falling into place, but the wiimote protocols are needlessly complicated, so there is a LOT of code running in the loop. I haven't really tested the performance of it while running a game (other than a brief T2 session).

The dolphinbar's built in modes are just crap. I mean if you don't care about accuracy, or 1to1 movement translation or 2 player modes I guess it is acceptable, but there is considerable lag and there isn't a way to calibrate.

But now that I think about it. You have that dolphinbar, so I would rather see you do something with that and a pc than a simple wii cab.

It depends upon how successful I am at writing a good ir script.

I'm making progress with the app I'm writing.... most stuff is falling into place, but the wiimote protocols are needlessly complicated, so there is a LOT of code running in the loop. I haven't really tested the performance of it while running a game (other than a brief T2 session).

The dolphinbar's built in modes are just crap. I mean if you don't care about accuracy, or 1to1 movement translation or 2 player modes I guess it is acceptable, but there is considerable lag and there isn't a way to calibrate.

Yep, and I'm the conformist in the tropical shirt at those things. But, man, nobody smokes anymore. Kind of miss the clouds of clove smoke. The new Djarum Blacks are terrible, apparently I have to import them from Indonesia now.

Good question. I'm thinking I'll probably bring this Qbert Cabaret, my Super Pac-Man cocktail, Macross, Janky Kong, and maybe one other machine, depending on how my Astro Blaster restore goes. I've taken NBA Jam in the past, but that thing is heavy. It almost killed Harveybirdman bringing it back in the house.

Well, last night they defeated the one team that managed to defeat them last year. Games are much better attended. Security is still pretty loose, but no more crashing the alumni association tailgates for $10 unlimited craft beer and BBQ. Be nice if those damn millennials would stop posting, "I think your attendance numbers are off, the guard didn't even scan our tickets" on the Cougar Facebook feed.

Anyway, it's a very nice stadium. Holds 40k and well equipped. Has a nice view of the downtown skyline. Hopped a shuttle from my office to the train stop, rode the train right up to the entrance gate. Can't complain.

Wife and I built a shed almost exactly like that in Virginia... only she let go of one of the sheet metal panels while I was holding the other end and it ended up slicing me pretty deep. Had to go to the ER for stitches. Heh.

Wife and I built a shed almost exactly like that in Virginia... only she let go of one of the sheet metal panels while I was holding the other end and it ended up slicing me pretty deep. Had to go to the ER for stitches. Heh.

When I bought my house that exact shed was in the yard but 20 years old and half caved in. I cut myself pretty good a couple times ripping that thing down. Hello, tetanus shot. We don't have any dumps here so I had to bend all of the pieces into balls that would fit into contractor grade trash bags and throw them all out at the curb at $1.25 a bag.

I don't know about those other things, but he did say to the cashier "I'm sick and tired of all these ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?--- olives on my ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?--- plain tacos."

To clarify what sucks so much about the Harry Potter ride, you have to wear 3-D glasses. That part unfortunately messes with your head and stomach more than the ride itself. I had to close my eyes to make the pain stop.

To clarify what sucks so much about the Harry Potter ride, you have to wear 3-D glasses. That part unfortunately messes with your head and stomach more than the ride itself. I had to close my eyes to make the pain stop.

Getting old sux.

Next time you go to a theme park, get the motion sickness patch (the one that goes behind the ear). They last 3 days and you can get as dizzy as possible and never get sick. You still get disoriented with the really intense rides, but never sick.

I was in L.A. a few weeks ago.. Didn't do the theme parks because we hit those in Orlando last year, but we did do a day tour of L.A. and stayed a night in Santa Monica, which was probably more fun than navigating hordes of kids and standing in line for an hour at a time to go on a 3 minute ride (at least for me anyway).

I just got back home the other day after pretty much 4 weeks on the road (driving). Went from Montana to Vegas to LA to Phoenix then back to Montana (3k miles), home for a week, then from Billings, MT to Bozeman, Missoula, and Kalispell in MT, then on to Moses Lake WA, Olympia, then the weekend in Seattle to visit friends and bum around Seattle. Then flew home from there on Sunday night for a meeting, then flew back to Portland where my GF drove the car while I was home in the meeting, then on to Boise, Idaho Falls, and finally home again. 5600 miles in the car. And in total, 3 days of vacation time, 6 weekend days, and the rest was work related. If I hadn't lost $1500 in Vegas, it would have been one of the cheapest vacations I ever took..

Now I just need to get through my youngest's 18th bday and halloween and this month can be over. Oh, and my son just left to move to Phoenix, which I am kind of bummed about.

This place was fun. People kept giving us drink tokens and some old guy spent an hour trying to sell me shrooms. Apparently that and marijuana cures all the diseases my wife has been researching for 10+ years. Someone alert NIH.

Btw just a question.... why do you think 50% of the cabs you find don't have backs? I just don't get it, but maybe I have worse luck than most.

That's a great question. I'd say about half my cab pickups were missing the door. Not sure why, other then maybe they get used for something else. I used to use a back door from some unknown project as a loading ramp for a while.

This one was a bit more complicated as it was a two-piece door. We have some scrap sheets of ply at work courtesy of a gym refurb, so I cut it at work using the nice table saw we have, and it fits like a glove. I love the fact the wood for the door has some history.

Heh... I love recycling stuff for projects. My racing cab has maybe 30 bucks in it in terms of hardware and wood.... everything else was scraps from other stuff.... I actually started the project to get rid of some of my scrap.

What throws me off about missing backs on cabs is they are fairly impossible to move without the back. Yeah if you have a fridge length dolly or want to risk putting it on the side of the cab, but still...

A lot of them were lost over the years because the lock arms were metal pressed against crappy wood. Especially the ones with MDF cabinets. Nearly every game I have bought had lock areas where the MDF was crumbled away so you couldn't lock the door. Eventually someone used drywall screws to close it up and then that crumbled away. Then you see the duct tape marks on the outside of the door and that dried up and fell off. So now in 2016 you come along to buy the game and the door has fallen off so many times the person threw it away, lost it, it got wet, etc. I almost always have to repair the inside of the back so it can hold a lock arm and then cut a new door. It's pretty much a standard "just bought a game" task.

If only loading the replacement MDF weren't so ---smurfing--- complicated.

Got rid of my crane machine today. My kids outgrew it, and it's a bit of a chore to keep it stocked with toys. I gave it to another collector with young kids. He texted me when he got it home and told me they were having a blast with it. That makes me happy. I'd rather give it away for free to someone I know than sell it to some flipper.

I'd love to meet all of you guys. Even the folks I've argued with. The very fact that we are all here and argue about our hobbies means we, at least, have common interests. I suck at the socializing thing, but I'd still love it!

My thyroid doctor did another neuropathy test today. Every stage was 100% perfect. So my risk for diabetes is officially low and my blood oxygen was also high so the asthma is doing ok as well. Now if my eye would finish healing so things from the left eye don't look like the cover of a Dr. Strange comic, I might actually be healthy.

Possible, but I still owe my wife a bit of a vacation before then. She kind of earned it by toughing out a couple surgeries and a month of radiation. That's right, I was kicking her out of bed every day to go get zapped and get herself to work while I slept in. Pretty ballsy, huh? I'm thinking of changing my name to Pretty Ballsy Ji... oh wait.

Glad you're getting there, Howard. The more things you get out of the way now, the faster you'll be back to 100% instead of always feeling like you're at 75. As long as they're happy with how your eye is coming along, all you have to do is stay patient. (Oh, and do whatever else they tell you.)

I really don't get you "vote on election day" people. I've been twisting arms for two weeks in Texas trying to frog march people to the polls. Was in and out in 26 minutes and there were over a hundred people ahead of me when I did it.

Anyway, I am hopeful for a clear conclusion to this election by tomorrow morning. And here's to better choices in 4 years.

I really don't get you "vote on election day" people. I've been twisting arms for two weeks in Texas trying to frog march people to the polls. Was in and out in 26 minutes and there were over a hundred people ahead of me when I did it.

Anyway, I am hopeful for a clear conclusion to this election by tomorrow morning. And here's to better choices in 4 years.

Yeah that's what has been keeping me from jumping down the pi rabbit hole. I'm sure in time I could muddle through *nix enough to make a decent FE but at the pace I work these days it would be done about the time the pi is obsolete.

That looks like my old carputer enclosure.... this was back in the day when mp3's were brand spanking new.... put a pc in a boot box with a alpha-numeric display and a keypad to change tracks. I was stylin' and profilin' (Wooooooooo!)

Yeah, I'm not sure why they moved there. Then again they used to live in Greenriver Wyoming. Imagine the middle of nowhere, surrounded by giant mountains and 2 hours of desert in either direction to ensure you remain in the middle of nowhere. So you know, it's an upgrade.